Nearly 700 lecture proposals were received after a call for papers went out for the 28th IFSCC Congress, leading to six plenary guest lecturers, 72 presentations and a number of scientific poster sessions to round out the event's scientific program.

Cutaneous Protection

At the congress, which will be held in Paris Oct. 27- 30, 2014, the cosmetics industry and academic researchers will present new skin protection strategies. Knowledge of the functional characteristics of healthy or pathological skin has progressed enormously in recent years. Many studies have looked at functions such as protection, pigmentation, perception and metabolism, using different techniques of functional exploration such as scans, microrelief, laser Doppler, NMR, etc. The mechanisms through which these characteristics change during the aging process are also explored. Bio-engineering, creating more innovative "devices," or applying certain health technologies in the cosmetics sector, such as optical coherence tomography (used in ophthalmology) or micro-elastography (initially used to detect breast and liver cancer) are of considerable interest as the cosmetics industry develops its knowledge of the skin. Prof. Philippe Humbert from the University of Franche-Comté will review the progress and challenges of functional cutaneous exploration. Françoise Bernerd from L’Oréal, Haruka Goto from Pola Chemical Industries, Marc Feuilloley from the University of Rouen as well as researchers from Inventiva, Induchem, BioEurope, Lonza, Silab, Sopharcos and Ashland will present the results of their research into different strategies for cutaneous protection.

Color

One of the characteristics of cosmetic products, and particularly of makeup, is that they play on the skin's appearance by controlling two physical characteristics: color and luminous intensity (luminance). Although it is the human system of visual perception that generates how something looks, this system involves complex processes in the human brain. Thus, it is difficult to identify which mechanisms are involved, and the way in which color and luminance can be quantitatively altered in order to improve the skin's appearance. This is the subject of the plenary lecture given by Prof. Katsunori Okajima from Yokohama National University. To study how humans perceive their skin quality in visual terms, Prof. Katsunori Okajima's team conducted visual psychophysical experiments. Researchers observed that there was a strong correlation between a person's perceived age and the number of wrinkles, whether the skin is shiny, and the number of marks on the skin, whereas there was little correlation with pore visibility and skin color.

Asia will be particularly well represented in this session, with lectures from Emi Kakizawa from Kose Corp., Etsuko Watarai from Kao Corp., Tomoko Okuura from Nippon Menard Cosmetic, Shoichiro Nishikawa from Pola Chemical Industries and Akinori Inoue from Naris Cosmetics.

Sensory and Well-being

Modern states are increasingly concerned about well-being, as are the consumers who purchase cosmetics. Recent developments in psychology and social sciences show that well-being does not simply depend on economic variables or health, but also on more subjective emotional processes. Discussing "well-being" requires positive emotions, and research by Arnaud Aubert, a senior lecturer at the University of Tours, has focused on understanding the mechanisms and functions of these emotions.

Perception of a stimulus is not merely a matter of assembling sensory data; it is a construct made by the brain in which emotions play an important part. A consumer's sensory experience can vary according to mood and emotional context. Arnaud Aubert will present the latest developments on emotional functions and mechanisms, and demonstrate possible methods of study.

There are 12 further lecturers in this session's program, including Daniela Prinz and Wolf Eisfeld from BASF, Tomo Osawa from Shiseido, Christelle Pêcher from Chanel, Anthony Galliano from L’Oréal and Leila Monnier from J&J.

Scientific Posters

IFSCC offers academic researchers, young researchers, major companies, SMEs and startups the opportunity to present their research work via a poster area. More than 450 posters will be presented during special scientific poster sessions three times a day.